Previous Next

Nintendo has wisely looked way back through its history book for its latest Game Boy Color release. Game & Watch Gallery 2 is a collection of five Nintendo Game & Watch games from the early Eighties, Game & Watch was Nintendo's first stab at the hand-held game genre, that predated the Game Boy by almost ten years, and were essentially one game in a portable, pocket-sized format - if you wanted to play something different, you would have had to buy another Game & Watch title.

Since the standard, quality and depth of video games has come on leaps and bounds since the original era of Game & Watch, Nintendo has not simply collected five games and stuck them on a Game Boy Color cart in a bid for a quick buck. Oh, no. Nintendo has been a bit more clever than that.

As well as a faithful copy of five original Game & Watch games - Parachute, Helmet, Chef, Vermin and industry classic Donkey Kong - Game & Watch Gallery 2 also includes brand new, never-before-seen modern renditions of the five games. The latter are in full colour (not the simple monochrome, wire-frame graphics of the Eighties originals), and have a collection of catchy ditties and sound effects (rather than the simple beeps and tweets of their predecessors). Each game offers you the choice of Classic or Modern mode, and after selecting your particular flavour, you are then given the option to choose which difficulty you want to play on. Since each game is different, let's take a look at each of them in turn.

As with all Game & Watch games, the idea of Parachute is relatively simple, but once the pressure mounts, things take a stressful turn for the worse! In the Classic mode, you need to help paddle an anonymous sailor's boat from left to right, catching the falling parachute men before they plunge into the shark-infested waters.

In the Modern mode, our hero gets a personality and a face, but I'm sure Mario needs no introduction! The hapless plumber has to rescue the parachuting Toads, but there are added elements to contend with. For instance, Toads can bounce off the fish if Mario misses them the first time around, and there's a cannon on the right-hand side of the screen which shoots out any unfortunate Toad that happens to land on it. Trying to row back and forth for the Toads dropping them from the sky, whilst contending with the cannon-launched variety can soon cause you all sorts of headaches!

It's raining hammers and spanners! In Classic mode, Helmet's resident handyman needs to make it to the shed on the right of the screen whilst avoiding falling tools. Single tools are soon followed by a deluge of odd-job implements, so you'll need quick reactions to avoid being crowned.

Mario is again the star of the Modern mode, and we also discover who is creating the tool rainstorm: a Koopa Paratrooper - although, in this mode, the only tool being dropped is a hammer... and loads of them at that! There's the added incentive of coin collecting in the Modern mode as well, but greed could soon get you into trouble.

Hmmm, something smells good! Although, that said, the Chef does seem a bit eccentric. After all, he spends all his time flipping food from one end of the kitchen to the other, avoiding a single scrap from falling on the floor.

The Mario brothers are the cooks in the Modern mode, with the flipping-food antics being left to Princess Peach. Our Royal-Chefness needs to ensure that the food is well done before it's given to Yoshi, and if she does well there are bonus points to be had.

Get ready for some whackin' good fun! The Classic mode of Vermin is probably the weakest game on offer within Game & Watch Gallery 2, because there's no real skill involved from going back and forth when the game automatically whacks the moles for you if they're at the right angle.

However, the Modern mode is much more fun, and you'll soon be grinning from ear to ear as you enjoy helping Yoshi to protect his eggs from the bad guys.

A game that probably needs no introduction, particularly as it was the first game to start the titular gorilla with attitude, and a certain Italian plumber called Mario. The classic Game & Watch game has been faithfully reproduced, even down to the sheer frustration factor instilled when you lose yet anther life due to an errant rolling barrel.

The Modern mode updates this classic with some gorgeous full colour graphics: there are some great animations on Mario, Donkey Kong, the Koopas and Princess Peach; as well as the different and colourful environments which mark a departure from the traditional building site.

Game & Watch Gallery 2 is an essential purchase for your Game Boy Color, as well as providing tons of fun, it is also a video game history lesson! If you have a few minutes to spare then Gallery 2 is perfect for those 'quick fix' gaming sessions, and the choice of five separate games for ten, if you add up the Classic and Modern modes) means that there's plenty of variety on just one cart. Game & Watch Gallery 2 should feel right at home sitting next to Tetris DX and Zelda: Link's Awakening DX in your Game Boy Color games library. It's simply the ideal Game Boy Color game.